1. My praise of you keeps me from thoughts of passion,
And pleasing you distracts me from the joys of youth.

2. How could one who's attained your boundless gifts
Still hope to gain more, when hopes cannot climb higher?

3. You've been generous, while men of former times were stingy,
So can you in your wisdom understand what they never grasped?

4. I'll make no excuse for their ignorance,
But say truthfully you excelled when they were miserly.

5. You never left the paths of noblemen, though they did,
And you walked the way of wealth when they went astray.

6. You gave it generously before being asked, with no
Favors or favors sought, even when asked.

7. O you who listen to the poor, favoring some more than others,
And you who grant gifts, detailing some and summarizing others,

8. Firm Quss and Suhaym and the refined people were stunned
If they could hear what you have let me hear.

9. Their minds would never grasp a fraction, when you speak offhand,
Of what you've said in praise of us.

10. The lands are bound by hands that only plunder wishes,
And allies that only slay hopes.

11. So what life have we, when fate and sustenance
Are yours to control, as is our appointed time?

12. Let your glory persist, though none praise you sycophantically,
Neither the owner of a camel or any assets speak.

13. Let him have neither a true word in an oath of charity
Nor a true deed in an oath of labor.

14. If kings had seen you, their crown,
They would have submitted and confessed to being humiliated.

15. What hopes could they have of catching up to you, when
You've attained what even your noble ancestors never grasped?

16. Those who do not worship the one whom time has worshipped
And who lack the courage of the formidable lion-slayers -

17. Their steeds on the day of battle are their resolve,
So they stab their foes vainly while utterly exposed.

18. If they had invaded Mecca in its days of ignorance,
The Quraysh would not have worshipped al-'Uzza or Hubal.

19. They passed away, leaving behind immortal reports
In which the delicate and gentle are dared.

20. You arose after they passed and time brought them down,
Taking the place of lions after the weapons were smashed.

21. For a time Syria wandered among you, then came to you
With your true determination what transfers did not change.

22. Its food in the jaws of deadly swords, its water
Between the ropes of the pulleys in wells.

23. Before your power, you gained mastery over it,
So decree, as your command reigns supreme.

24. After the word of the king of earth, what more, brother,
Can I seek, when all wishes fall short before it?

25. He praised you, his noble self present,
As did books, when it became known and messengers delivered.

26. Renewing for you something he grants no other,
Since all that is new to him eventually grows old.

27. He settled you, when he made you his brother, in a position
No buyer hopes for, nor celestial sphere attains.

28. He shaded you with his grace of all kinds of nobility
And honor in its many forms.

29. Of his raiment that has eternal pride
A perpetual honor remains with you as garments wear out.

30. Of the choice items he used to wear
Are steeds that war and fetters cannot subdue.

31. Their ornament increased, and if they came to you bare
Of pure silk, plainness would not diminish them.

32. Before and behind are the standards of glorious victory
Guaranteed for one shaded by mighty honor.

33. From the shoulder of one embraced by victory, so he is
Never devoid of its shade.

34. Chance after chance called you to it,
O you through whom the chance of nobles is seasoned!

35. He handed over command auspiciously to his appointee,
One who dives resolutely into fright with triumph.

36. When war loomed, none were present for his council
Who had greed, cowardice, or stinginess.

37. How could the sons of the age feel secure from tyranny
When their father fears its grip and shakes?

38. You terrified him in positions you subjugated,
Until even with his resolve paralysis overcame him.

39. Your determination was never weakened by disasters,
So through you kingdoms and dynasties rose and fell!

40. The Romans - those who truly know
That whether they make peace or fight, they'll be safe or killed,

41. With no security unless their father is generous to them,
Banishing fear and tremors.

42. They hope for safety through him, so their souls may live,
While safety comes down and souls depart.

43. You've killed half of them in fright and half
Death takes in joy at attaining what they sought.

44. So pride yourself, for before you every sword of calamity
Has fear and caution take the place of its wielders!

45. You've come openly to Antioch - before you are
Killers: terror and confusion.

46. And every dark spear in its wood still hopes
After meeting you, no wood of theirs being devoid of promises.

47. And every white polished sword in its strikes
Is the model that strikes the studded heads.

48. And every shining sword - you're the guarantor
That none will be taken as spoils in a raid.

49. Brown, like the night, or blond and pure,
To you in darkness appears a garment made by origin.

50. Reminding of your father who plundered them with the sword when
Each thousand he scared away lost a man.

51. They fled from two hundred thousand in two hundred thousand,
And the kingdom was never theirs for that proud man.

52. And victory was granted victory when he confronted them
With resolve unlike any who harbored hopes.

53. You've gained victory free of their stratagems,
As the cycles of time can do what cunning never could.

54. Among your wonders, you drew out a pearl
Whose diver is the white and whose burrow is the oysters.

55. And yesterday you paired with it a pearl
Whose sea is desolate places and barren tracts.

56. Noble of husband and forefathers, adorning her is
A noble lineage connected to Abdullah.

57. She complains of the years she spent lost in desolation
After being lost in exhaustion.

58. You've reached what you hoped for and aspired to,
While the envious never attained their hopes.

59. For you are gifts never marred by any bitterness,
Despite pure things that fault could never stain.

60. Over all of this that you embody
Of noble deeds and virtue nothing prevails,

61. Are gifts that leave even the clouds behind, absent,
While rain cannot match them in its plentitude.

62. As for your chastity - do not deny it, for after
Ambitions have collapsed around you, what have they to gain?

63. Its driver and precursor have come to your meadow,
O sea of dew, hasty.

64. They have abandoned aspiring through any path to your kingdom
Where people and camels and cattle do not compete.

65. Jesus roams the hands of horses wherever they tread
While the select purge the pressure of their knees.

66. So pave roads never smoothed for them, for the paths
Have narrowed with those who came seeking your generosity.

67. Stay well, as holidays continue to return,
Triumph welcome, shade outstretched.

68. You appeared among us, affirming the eyes, and none
Exceeds hoping for your permanence, however much they call and implore!

69. When your army marched, four were worth two hundred thousand -
However they struggled, they excelled or were superior.

70. They surpassed ancestors and forefathers, so their pride
Echoes on through time, connected and separate.

71. Its detail: Ibn Buwayh and Ibn Ziyad,
While with Nasr, ally of generosity, it remains connected.

72. And you, most generous father, their pride
In the land is lasting and to come.

73. They lasted and never camped except in honor,
Eternally, never going silent or weary.

74. O supporter of the faith through striving, you've risen to
This position, though the heights are difficult to attain.

75. And by the wars you inflamed, the lands of those who
Before did not isolate themselves have become isolated.

76. Strategy and discord do not meet together,
When swords and spears part ways.

77. You've filled odes over their capacity,
So that neither professional nor amateur can critique you.

78. Virtues have filled my poetry with their throngs,
Preventing any trifling or amorous verse.

79. So listen to unraveling by the discerning judge on earth,
Like the sun, backed in its zodiac mansion by Aries:

80. Swift though it always seems to settle
In each land as it travels on ceaselessly,

81. Never repeated in hearing, so that its repetition
Would bring annoyance or boredom.

82. Your attributes have confounded any words that could encompass them,
Until poet and plagiarist were rendered equal.

83. Exploits spread to the horizon were publicized,
So no critic undertaking to describe them felt embarrassment.

84. I seek refuge for your glory from the evil eye, for how often
Has the eye smitten kingdoms before they reached perfection!

85. Merits filled my poetry, in their excess,
To grasp them, though hope falters and wishes prove false.

86. Stay well and holidays continue ever returning,
Triumph on its way and shade being cast.

87. You've appeared among us, satisfying the eyes, and none
Can outlast hoping for your continuance, however much they call and implore!